U.S. Adapting INS Idea to Track Terror Suspects

A system credited with helping the Immigration and Naturalization Service catch hundreds of wanted felons along California’s border with Mexico will soon become part of a national security net aimed at identifying possible terrorists.

The national program, unveiled this week, will require thousands of foreign visitors to be fingerprinted and photographed, beginning Sept. 11.

The pictures and fingerprints will then be checked against a database of wanted criminals and suspected terrorists. They will also be cataloged to keep track of those entering and leaving the country.

The fingerprint-and photo-matching technology has helped INS agents catch more than 2,000 fugitives trying to reenter the country this year, U.S. Department of Justice officials said.

At San Diego’s three ports of entry, among the busiest in the country, INS officials have arrested more than 600 people in the last 10 months wanted for crimes ranging from murder to robbery.

The national program uses existing technology and adds a second database to track foreign visitors who are believed to present a high terrorism risk, officials said.

Those who will come under scrutiny include visitors from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Sudan and Syria, countries that are on the State Department’s list of terrorism sponsors. Other visitors who meet “intelligence criteria reflecting patterns of terrorist organizations’ activities” will also be fingerprinted and photographed.

Jose Martinez, a U.S. Justice Department spokesman, declined to describe the “intelligence criteria,” citing national security.

The program is a response to federal legislation passed last year that called for tighter control of the flow of visitors in and out of the country after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. It will be implemented at several ports of entry on Sept. 11 and, after a 20-day test phase, expanded to all sea, air and land ports.

“The vulnerabilities of our immigration system became starkly clear on Sept. 11,” Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft said Monday. “This system will expand substantially America’s scrutiny of those foreign visitors who may present an elevated national security risk.”

But the program also drew criticism from civil libertarians and immigrant groups.

“It is nothing short of racial profiling,” said Hussam Ayloush, executive director of the Council on American Islamic Relations in Orange County. “The main impact will be to send a message to law-abiding visitors who happen to be Muslims and Arabs that America is a land where they will be treated differently.”